1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device that is an optical device used for optical communication and optical information processing and in which an optical control function has been improved by pumping a two-dimensional slab photonic crystal and driving the two-dimensional slab photonic crystal at a current and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2) Description of the Related Art
An active operation of a conventional optical active device that uses a two-dimensional slab photonic crystal including an active layer is realized by optical pumping (see, for example, “Room Temperature Optical Pumping/Oscillation by 2D Slab Photonic Crystal Waveguide Laser”, Atsushi SUGITATE et al, Proceedings of the Electronics Society Conference, the Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communication Engineers, 2002, p. 329)). This literature discloses that, in the two-dimensional slab photonic crystal in which a hole pattern of a two-dimensional triangular lattice is formed in a layer structure, in which the active layer of a multiple quantum well structure made of InGaAsP is put between air cladding layers, and in which a linear defect is introduced into the hole pattern, if a pumping laser light is irradiated from an upper portion of a waveguide constituted by the linear defect, lasing occurs from an edge of the waveguide.
The conventional optical active device has, as disclosed in the above-mentioned literature, following disadvantage. Since electrode formation means is not established, the crystal cannot be pumped by current injection. As a result, the optical active device can operate as an active optical device such as a laser or a modulator only by optical pumping.